1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to the provision of a tactile virtual world or environment wherein, in particular, a virtual reality environment provides an interactive 3-D interface for synthesizing the feeling of experiencing a 3-D environment. More particularly, there is provided a method for implementing actual physical applications that can simulate real 3-D environments; for example, such as a physical training exercise or artificial 3-D environments, or simulating the interacting with molecules or complex data sets.
2. Background Art
In the current state-of-the-technology, which is concerned with the formation of virtual reality environments, a significant limitation which is encountered with regard to the so-called computer graphics environments resides in that these produce only relatively primitive or crude methods for the feeling, touching or shaping of the surfaces and textures of the virtual world or environment.
Presently, products that are available in the state of the technology in this particular area of interest, necessitate the use of data gloves, such as gloves which sense hand positions and/or which provide extremely low special resolution vibrations; and require haptic probes, such as are commercially available from known entities, such as SensAble and Haption (registered trademarks), the latter of which employ force-feedback in order to indicate the properties of an object in a point by point aspect.
More recently, copending United States patent applications have been filed by the present inventors, which each provide for a methodology wherein devices comprising arrays of essentially displaceable pins denote surfaces and their respective properties. These devices, in one instance, are disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/047,771, entitled “Novel Tactile Input/Output Device and System to Represent and Manipulate Computer-Generated Surfaces”, which provides for a device and method wherein the hand of a user is placed on an array of pins, thereby facilitating the user to feel and edit any arbitrary computer-generated surface. A co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/047,848, entitled “Virtual Hand: A New 3-D Haptic Interface for Virtual Environments”, discloses the mounting of an array of pins on a robot arm for enabling a user to move a “Virtual Hand” through a virtual world, in order to touch, feel and edit its surfaces. Both of these copending U.S. patent applications are commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application and the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Firstly, although these approaches, which are clearly elucidated in the above-mentioned patent applications, are novel and quite useful, they are to some extent limited in that the user must wear a physical device. Secondly, when using the physical devices, the user thereof can only “feel” the virtual world through his/her palms. Thirdly, although the sensation of touch or “feel” is communicated by the displacements of the applicable pins in the array, it does not produce the same sensation as would be the touching of a physical object with bare hands. Fourthly, the spatial sensitivity of the hands is significantly more refined than the resolution of the array of pins, whereas in the technology currently available, the movements of the object represented by the virtual reality environment cannot be felt on the user, except through haptic device worn by the user. Moreover, since the virtual world is basically fixed, the user is not able to move beyond its spatial limits.